Pianist Fazıl Say signs new recording contract with Warner Classics for Mozart piano sonatas

ISTANBUL

The world renowned Turkish pianist and composer Fazıl Say has signed a contract with Warner Classics to record the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas cycle. 

Warner Classics announced that Say had signed a contract marking Say’s return to the record company, where his recording career first started, after around 20 years. 

“I’m very happy to be once again a part of Warner. Warner Music launched my recording career 20 years ago when I was a Teldec artist. We now have this wonderful opportunity to record Mozart, as well as future projects ranging from Chopin to Satie, to my own music as a composer,” said Say, according to a statement released on the Warner Classics website. 

Alain Lanceron, the president of Warner Classics and Erato, said that Say was one of the greatest pianists of the current era, whose unique style creates a scintillating blend of classical and jazz influences. 

“This is above all an artist engaged in the world around him, a humanist who never stops championing freedom of expression. To see him return to his original label family, with inspired recording projects that will captivate his loyal fans and new listeners alike, is for us a source of great pride,” said Lanceron. 

The recording of the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas cycle will be ready for release in September as a 6-CD boxed set and also via digital/streaming platforms.

Having been recorded in the Great Hall of the Salzburg Mozarteum, the new recording of the “complete set of 18 sonatas has been grouped by key, allowing Say to explore Mozart’s pioneering approach to tonality,” the statement read. 

“This recording for me represents the most comprehensive and important work I have undertaken in my musical life as an interpreter,” Say explains in an extensive essay written specially for the collection. “The feelings that came to the fore during these recordings are also some of the most special that I have experienced in my life.”

The new recording contract between Warner Classics and Say covers markets worldwide, excluding Japan and Turkey, according to the statement.